It can be hard to put a positive spin on the art that comes out of war, sometimes. From Wilfred Owen, famously killed in the final week of World War One, to Picasso’s Guernica, a monumental painting whose lessons are even today being forgotten in any number of countries, Western or otherwise, any great work born of conflict is tinted with bitterness. Yet there is no option but to pay attention, to engage with them, in the hope that they might tell us something deeper about human nature, for better or worse.

This is no less true of cinema than poetry, painting or anything else. It makes sense, then, that Nomad Cinema, the pop-up cinema that donates 100 per cent of its profits to charity, has turned its attention to war cinema with three special screenings at the Imperial War Museum. As has come to be expected of Nomad screenings, total immersion is central here, as audiences will sit beneath the Spitfires and jets suspended overhead in the Museum’s Atrium to be regaled with Joe Wright’s Atonement, Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket and—just in case things were getting a little too dark and tragic—Casablanca.

Cinema-goers will also have access to the major IWM exhibition Real to Reel: A Century of War Movies, which explores the way filmmakers have engaged with the intense drama, tragedy and occasional absurdity of war over the decades. Featuring clips, costumes, props, sketches, designs and scripts, it traces the history and process of development behind films such as The Dam Busters, Apocalypse Now, Das Boot, Saving Private Ryan and many others. With so much on offer, this will very much be a must for anyone keen to get to grips with the serious questions of good filmmaking, what happens when people find themselves in desperate, life-threatening positions, and how the two combine on-screen.